Ivan, Mariana, and The American Dream

And after 25 years of success and this business is doing really well and me thinking that I wanted this business really badly. Within six months, the financial collapse happened and we lost 97% of our revenue.

We were not going to back down, we were not going to surrender to the circumstances.

You managed to prep the business, negotiate really life changing financial freedom numbers and walk away in six days, which is extraordinary.

No matter what the situation is. There is a special custom process or pathway for you, a pathway through to your dreams, to why you started your business in the first place, to create the freedom and the quality of life for your family. And that dream is still alive. I want to tell you, no matter where you are finding yourself in right.

Now, it is way better to, you know, get on the journey on the same journey with your partner, with your spouse than, you know, trying to figure it out alone. Because it, it becomes more difficult doing it alone, but doing it together way better in makes it more possible.

That's the pinnacle of entrepreneurial freedom. Selling your business for an eight figure or more exit, getting paid up front and exiting strings free in less than a week, or having a, a self managing, self running business where you can disappear without a phone, laptop or meeting for weeks at a time. I know that sounds impossible, but today's guests, Ivan and Mariana Polic, are an amazing power couple and a true American dream and a hero's journey, which I always love. So they were born in Serbia into a world of chaos and war at home in their country. And they've endured the worst of entrepreneurship, losing 93% of their revenue with a business they took over, being near bankruptcy, panic and anxiety attacks, total hopelessness. Sound familiar? Well, their journey is fascinating and I can promise, very relevant to you. Ivan is a former professional soccer player turned aeronautics entrepreneur, and Mariana, a journalist who thrived in the most challenging environments. They met on TV during a war before immigrating to the U.S. so we're going to hear all about their American dream that included taking over Ivan's father's family business, only to see sales plummet 93%. So this is Capability Amplifier and today my guests. This is Ivan and Mariana, by the way.

Say hi.

All right, thank you, you guys. So they're going to share with you the art and science of getting out of your way. Their shift intelligence system can help you double your revenue, triple your income, and achieve entrepreneurial freedom. That's a big, big, big promise. But they've got the goods. So this system helped them rebuild their business from the ground up and achieve a Massive eight figure exit and walk away fully six days later. So if you are stuck in the grind, fighting for financial freedom and longing for the time to enjoy life with your family, this episode is for you. So, Ivan and Mariana, welcome to the show. It's so nice to be here with you.

Thank you.

Great to be with you. All right, that's quite a. Quite an intro there.

I know.

Well, it's. The good news is it's all true. And I told you this the moment I met you. We gotta thank Roland Frazier for reconnecting us. But I love a great American dream story, and you guys are, to me, the pinnacle of a power couple who made it. And you get to share it with other people. And this is not just a Left Brain episode. This is about a lot of love and a lot of heart. And that was one of the things before we worked together, you said, look, that's super important to me. So before we get going and talk about your backstory and also share some of the big ideas, how the hell are you and what's on your mind right now?

I know I'm picking on you.

Well, I love to be here. It's been a long journey, so getting some of the story out, it feels great.

Yeah, yeah.

Love to be here. Thank you so much for having us.

It's a total pleasure. So I'm going to start with you, Mariana, before we get into the meat, because. Because Shift intelligence is your system that you guys have been working on, and there it's both the cure for your entrepreneurial challenges, but also now that you've been working with other founders, helping them do what you've done or turn their business into a business they'll love, which resonates deeply with me. But why don't you describe your background? Because it's awesome and I love the story, even though you hate it, of the cow that ate your dress or the bull that ate your dress. But I'm pick. Yeah, I can't help it.

Well, I was born an only child on a farm and where all you can hear and do is hard work and no complaining, getting up early in the morning. I learned how to drive a tractor when I was six years old because my dad needed somebody to move the tractor on the field and also bring it home. So learned all kinds of things that usual kids don't learn these days. Milked cows, getting up at 4am in the morning, and, you know, many different things. So, you know, on one hand, it was very hard, and I was kind of ashamed of, you know, being from the farm, when it was not popular, everybody was like, into the city and, you know, urban culture and things like that. But then what I realized later, meeting some most incredible people who grew up on farms and successful and smart, that it taught me a lot of things. You know, never give up and, you know, be adaptable and embrace hard work and ethics and all of that. So as much as it was hard, it was also really good and beneficial.

Yeah, no, it's like I said, I just love your backstory. And we have a photo of the bull that ate your dress. And I'm going to put that in here whether you like it or not, please.

So, Ivan, you're a professional soccer player, but before that, just to set things up, you grew up in a little bit of a war at home that turned into a war at home, meaning in the house and then in your country. It's also one of the ways that you two met. But why don't you tell a bit about your backstory and get to the soccer part too? Playing professional soccer.

Yeah. Well, growing up, my mom and dad didn't get along. And as a young kid, I was looking up at them and thinking, how is it possible these amazing human beings can get along? Like, they are so magical, so strong, so powerful, so smart, but these just can't get along. A lot of fighting around home. And I kind of needed an escape. And my escape was the soccer field. Getting out there and actually being able to make a difference on the field, being actually able to affect the outcome as opposed to not being able to affect, to get my parents to get along. And so that was my escape. And that's kind of like 25 year journey, a kind of quest to, to reach the professional level, to, to actually affect outcomes at the highest levels. And that's kind of the journey. And I, I now say that my biggest prize for my whole professional soccer career is sitting right next to me. Oh, yeah, yeah.

So you gotta tell I have to set this up a little bit.

Right.

Because.

You were getting in trouble in Serbia, your dad, who had moved to the States and started.

Aeronautics company.

Right.

Aerospace company, rather. You came in, basically grew up here. But take it from there. How soccer changed things around for you, and then it went back home. But talk about the professional journey and how you met.

Yeah, so I, I came to live with my dad to get out of trouble at 16 years old. And then I still kept my dream of playing professional soccer. I went to college on a soccer scholarship, and after college I wanted to go, go back home to Serbia and pursue my dream of playing in those big stadiums and playing at the first division level and being. Being a professional player. Being. And when I. When I went back, that's. That's when I went. Mariana. And I was lucky enough to give an interview after one of our first games. And she was the sports team reporter. A stunning, beautiful. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, I better. I should have seen something smart right now, because my looks ain't gonna get me across the line here. So I was able to put a few. Few good. Good things together in that interview. And. And thank God, because that was the beginning of our relationship. And the. The war part that you're mentioning. After a couple years of being together, the NATO bombing of Serbia happened, and it was a major upheaval. We had to run and hide, and it was very, very rough. And that's. I had a choice. I had to either.

Ask her to marry me or I had to go away forever. And I joke many times and say that there had to be war for me to have enough balls to do what I needed to do. And that was kind of like one of those moments where you don't waste the crisis. And that was a big, big push and hurdle. And we ended up having to get married in a foreign language, and we had to have a forced honeymoon while the bombing was going on because we couldn't do it all in Serbia. We had to run and get out and all of that. So it was a major, major, major chapter in our lives. And it's been 25 years. Exactly. We just did a reentry two days ago.

That was awesome. While we were together. That was so great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's a little bit of the backstory. That's awesome.

Do you have anything to add to that, Brianna?

Well, yes. He was a smart soccer player who, you know, gave a good interview, and, you know, those are, you know, low. High in demand, but low in supply, if I had to say that. So, yeah, it was. I was actually quite proud of myself for achieving that. I was the only female sports reporter in the city at that time. And, you know, I was always looking for good interviews and, you know, something of value to add beyond just, you know, simple reporting. And he definitely provided that. So the word that got him over the line was consolidated our lines. And I'm like, I would like to consolidate.

That's a long word. There's a lot of letters in that word. How about in Serbian? Is that a long. Is that a long word, too?

Yes.

Translate the same yeah.

Oh, it is. Yeah.

Okay.

All right. So from here.

You made it over the borders. You basically had more or less, if I remember correctly, sneaker over. And then you managed to give to the states legally, of course. And then I like to just riff on our current political state because. But. And then you came to take over the family business. So why don't you tell the story that really made for this interview today, which is the transformation, the pain, and ultimately that led to the big exit. So that's the setup.

Where was it that you crossed the border and then what happened when you took over the business when things blew up again?

So I had to wait for her at the border of Bulgaria and Serbia. On the other side, I was already out of the country at that point. I was already an American citizen. And then her dad had to drive her over to the border crossing. She had to say goodbye right there to kiss her dad goodbye and walk over to the other side to me. Maybe you can cover that. It's quite emotional.

Well, it's one of those moments that you know that you are unbreakable. Even when your heart breaks, you know, it's such a mix of feelings when you are leaving your country and leaving your family on one side and you're grieving that and you're getting separated and you don't know when and if will you come back because it's war and whether they're going to survive or not. And then on the other hand, the love of your life is waiting on the other side and you're so excited and there's new life ahead and you're just kind of bursting with joy. So, you know, it is in those pivotal moments when you realize, okay, I guess I'm, you know, I can make it anywhere.

I love that. So here you come to the States. Your dad had this business that you guys started taking over and why don't you lead us up to the disaster moment that took you on a hell of an entrepreneurial journey.

Yeah, so it was a. It was an aerospace precision machining company. We made mission critical parts for commercial airliners and military applications. You know, when a signal has to go through, when a pilot presses a button and electrical connectors and components have to get the signal across. Those are the parts that we made less than a hair tolerance, very difficult operation. We had a 24,7 production, a very demanding and difficult business. I have to say, one of the most difficult. And we were humming along. We were doing really well. I earned enough trust and added a lot of value in order to put myself in a position where my father said, I think it's time for me to go home to Europe and, you know, you got to take this thing to the next level. I really took that upon myself to really do well by it. And after 25 years of success and this business is doing really well, and me thinking that I wanted this business really badly. Within six months, the financial collapse happened and we lost 97% of our revenue. And we were pretty much crushed with no hope because there was no work to be had. Everybody was really tight around everything, work and all that. There were no orders to be had out there. And we were pretty much limping into a. Planning how to go bankrupt in the most optimal way with no hope in sight, and a business that was healthy and growing and succeeding. We just signed a five year deal that was going to put us on an amazing track, and I was instrumental in that. And we opened up a new facility and new equipment and new everything. And boom, right after that we were losing 200 grand a month. There was only so many months that we could have kept the lights on. And so that's. That was the time when we really were feeling the pain.

Yeah. Now, from there, there's, there's a lot of in betweens here, but during the hopeless, helpless part when you were really struggling. Mariana, why don't you describe some of the, the moments what, what you experienced both as a partner, because you were.

You'Ve got young kids. And why don't you talk a little bit about the pain that you observed that you went through in the transition to figuring out how to fix this thing.

Right. Well, every day you see the pain on his face and in his body every single day. And I remember the most just waking up during the night and turning over and he is just lying there in bed, kind of frozen, eyes to the ceiling, trying to figure it out, trying to figure out where, you know, how to keep it going, what's going to happen, what is the future again, as you said, you know, family, two young kids, employees, you know, do we need to let people go? How do we keep them? You know, what the future. And then also the sense of potential disappointment to the father, what he was building and, you know, and everything was so much weight on his shoulders. And I'm looking at him and I'm helpless. I.

I don't know what more is painful. Is it me witnessing him and kind of trying to absorb his pain or my own pain of not being able to help? Like, how can I help? Yes, I'm There, I'm with you. I'm hoping that's enough. Let's just tell me what to do, and I will do it. And, you know, that was one of the things that actually made us look deeply at ourselves and say, we've been through a lot since very young age, both of us, and we endured a lot, but we're also very sturdy, and we figured out a lot of stuff growing up. And up until this moment. How can we figure out this situation? Because we were not going to back down. We were not going to surrender to the circumstances. At that time, there were a lot of machining companies and organizations and shop that went under, but we were not going to be a statistic.

Yeah. So talk a little bit about the transition, because.

You guys got coaching, you.

Invested in yourselves when you had no resources. And along the way, you know, I'd never bet against an engineer and a farm girl, especially a Serbian farm girl, but, you know, you became the wizard and the fixer, the visionary and the fixer. Talk about the moment when you first had hope and when you started figuring out your toolkit and where shift intelligence was born.

Well, that's a handful. I know.

It's a.

We got it.

It's. You know, first we had to find. Just to stop the bleeding because it was. It was really rough. So we had to make really, really deep cuts. You know, they say you gotta cut to the bone. I think we cut into the bone. That's how major the cuts had to be. We were running a 247 production facility. We had to go down to three days a week, one shift from 24 7. It was a big cut, and that was the only thing that enabled us to survive. Our advisory board was instrumental in that, helping us make the appropriate cuts, able to get enough traction to keep the lights on, and then slowly rebuild from there. We were quite a bit of a secret in the industry, so we were a little bit of a captive vendor with large concentration. And we had to open up to the marketplace. We had to get certified at Ans 9100. We had to put the systems in place. We had to open up to the marketplace, and we accomplished all of those things. We used the crisis, actually, when the production slowed down to put some of those things in place. So we were not just sitting there as a sitting duck. We were actually preparing for our rise out of that situation, and we were able to do it. And along the way, we had to do a bunch of our inner work in order to be able to see a bigger picture, see the bigger vision, notice the stuff that is outside the box solutions. We have to acknowledge certain things, face certain realities in the business and overcome a lot of internal challenges. We have to overcome the resistance to change from the. From the staff, from the team, and add the right people and let go of the right ones and build out.

Of that difficult situation. We use it as a foundational moment to take things to the right place and eventually enable our exit.

Okay, so I'm going to ask Mariana this next question, which is. And we're going to deconstruct some of the successes that you've had since then in your toolkit.

But Mariana, when can you remember the moment when you had hope and you had a buyer and you started going through the cycle that can either be game changing, life changing, or absolutely disastrous. Because the worst thing that can happen to a founder sometimes is the sale where you get a little bit of money up front, you're tied down and you become an indentured servant for a long period of time. You're given impossible to reach goals by the buyer and you never get the rest of your money and you have to go back and basically get a job or start all over again. And that. That absolutely sucks.

Right?

But you guys managed to figure it out, turn it around, get it to a point, and payday. So what were the breakthrough moments and what happened? And we'll back through some of the healing moments too, because some of this was a deep spiritual journey, getting past your own traumas, intergenerational traumas, Serbian traumas, genocidal traumas. But let's go back to the win.

Okay? Right. Well, we're very resourceful people, both of us, and if we don't know how to figure something out, we will find help and ask who can help us? Which we did have a lot of help. And from the beginning, we were really clear, knowing some of the stories that we've heard and, you know, seeing people, you know, going on a journey that was just not a desirable one, as you say, you know, a servant journey, you know, under the new buyer. We were, we were very clear from the beginning that we will sell the business and exit. There were no. There was no contingency, you know, you have to stay this much, this long, you have to do this. You have to, you know, get your money later and things like that. And we were not going to settle to just sell for the sell, you know, selling sake. We were going to, you know, just make an exit and do something else. Because as great of a journey this was, and Also achieving a great success within the company, you know, quadrupling it and making it a really healthy organization. Even then, this was not our future. We were already on the side being asked to help other entrepreneurs and organizations with their transitions and building the team and culture and things like that. So that was our purpose, we felt like for both of us to help others do the same that we did. So that helped us be clear on how can we make this organization absolutely untouchable when it comes to any kind of games that are being played in the market so that we can exit clean, you know, take it, you know, give it to the buyer in the best possible way, in the best possible conditions so we can focus on doing something else. So we were both on the same page.

Yeah. So you managed to prep the business, negotiate really life changing financial freedom numbers and walk away in six days.

Which is extraordinary. And in the process you built your own toolkit because by then you were already advising and consulting with other clients. So I'm going to set up the next question and I'm going to check in and see if you have anything to add there along that line. Because sometimes the best way to teach the system is by deconstructing successes. So what I had ahead of time is I got to review a lot of your past clients and customers you've been working with.

Examine your toolkit. You've got a massive body of IP systems, procedures and also psychology that's uniquely yours. But why don't we, first of all, is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn't between the last bit and then let's start deconstructing some success stories. And I want to start with Beverly. She was one that really popped because she's representative, I think, of most entrepreneurs. But anything that I should have asked you that I didn't so far?

Yeah, I mean this didn't just happen overnight. So we had two failed attempts at a sale. Two times. I tend to see failed due diligence and got less desirable deals in the end of the process of due diligence, which taught us a lot on how what needed to happen inside of the business for it to be sellable the way we wanted to sell it. So a lot of preparation went into that. We have to think from the perspective of the buyer, what would they look at, what is the risk that is acceptable to them, what would they buy that didn't need a lot of transition time, what would the organization have to be and how self sustainable and self managed would it need to be? We consciously actually went to a two hour work week ourselves so that that story would be believable, that this organization is already running by itself for a while before you've acquired it. It's a, it's a asset in a box that you're getting that is going to just come along very well. And so that's, that's, that, that was a process. And during the finalization of the deal, there was a demand that we stay for six weeks. For, for that we stay for six months. Which we said, absolutely not. We're not staying for six months. They said, can we do some kind of, we need to do something. We said, no, no. And they said, no deal. We cannot do a deal. And we said, wait a minute, maybe we can do something. So rather than let the deal die, we said, what if we gave you two days a week and you don't need us, but we'll give you two days a week just for your certainty? And they said, okay, that's the deal. Let's do the deal. And in the third week of that process, they said, you were right, you were right. We don't need you. Thank you very much.

Goodbye and see you later. And that's the six day process of transition that is very uncommon.

Bob.

That is awesome. So I could ask you many, many more questions, but I think some of the answers are going to emerge in our case studies.

So.

And there's again, there's so many great places to go. You guys are so complex. You have such a fascinating backstory. We can just stay on the personal stuff, but I want to create more value for our listener and viewer. Let's talk a little bit about Beverly. And when I look at all your case studies, what many of your clients have in common is an organization that requires the founder so they can't get away. They're working 60, 80 hours a week. Lots of partner problems, bad partners. Renegotiation has to take place.

Key employee culture issues where the, you know, teams don't listen to you, they are not accountable. You know, all the standard challenges founders have, and.

You'Ve built this system that consistently works and there's the psychology around it. So we'll spend a little more time in the psychology, but let's get the nuts and bolts first. So why don't you talk about Beverly, the setup there and how you got her to her own level of independence?

Well, Beverly has a consulting business that she was a senior consultant. She built this business from scratch. She was the original consultant. She added some people and things and she was always a person that, with a very strong work ethic and she just couldn't understand how other people didn't have the same work ethic and why would they get away with cutting corners when she never did. She was working 80 hours a week. Her right hand person that she put in place to support her on her continued growth, she became a kind of a limiting as a senior consultant, she needed more, more leverage. So the person that she brought in was functioning for three or four years before turning toxic and turning off all the other consultants and pretty much making a nightmare in her business. We were brought in to actually deal with the nightmare of how to, how to let go and release this person that was the kind of in a general manager position without it blowing up in a lawsuit of epic proportions. She was very hesitant and worried that this is going to actually take her whole business down because she had access to information that could hurt the business very much. So we had to negotiate with her a friendly departure that was going to not sink the business. And that was the beginning of it. By the time we did that, there was no team around anymore because the entire team was kind of disbanding because of the ugliness of the situation. The customers and clients were not getting the great service. We had to in rapid fire rebuild the team, retrain the team, recreate the culture, rebuild the organization and all of those things. And we did. And right now is Beverly, right now, three years later, is about six months from running her business from an island, literally, because she, she wants to be fully remote. She's doing no consulting work at all whatsoever. She's down to normal hours and leadership hours. And she's going to be a fully remote owner with an asset that's coming beautifully, growing, growing and improving without meeting her.

And I know when we were going through some of the comments.

She said to you, I feel like I have three CEOs. So, you know, talk a little bit about.

You know, you, Ivan, as an engineer with the engineer's mind, but you're also the intuitive healer. And then over here we've got the warrior. Were there some, what specifically did you find you had to do, Mariana, to set things straight and be the fixer in this particular situation?

Well, it just so happens that Beverly and I are similar in some ways, you know, on the hard work and the grind. And, you know, we both have that background, so I was able to understand her on that level. You know, on the other hand, you know, Ivan as a visionary, he always had a big picture in mind. And he will share that with her and training her to expand her capacity, how to see her business out of trouble, into the new era, into the new future, that actually it is possible to be on an island. Because at that point when we started working together, it was only a dream. It was a dream that she would just push aside and something impossible and, you know, in a certain amount of revenue and whatever the business was bringing. And then Ivan, as a visionary will come in and he was like, this is possible. We can do this. So we were like, together. We are very complimentary in that and having her be. Have us be with her. That's one of the things she also mentioned, is that we were able to sit with her through any and all situations that she was experiencing when she was, you know, like totally in her mind and, you know, getting, you know, like totally professional and business and all of that. Also being extremely emotional. A lot of the first year was crying, so. And also when she was angry, you know, when she would come on a call and you know, she'll be angry and giving angry updates and everything, we sat with all of that. We were expanding our capacity for that as well. Being able to, to see her in that moment and then work with what is present and what it's needed in that situation and what we needed to address.

Yeah. Well, one thing that I want to take a moment for you as a viewer, as a listener.

So one of the things that I've been working on with Ivan and Mariana is diving really deep into their business. And one of the things that we put together for you is a masterclass on shift intelligence. And also there's a book and a toolkit to learn more about working with them. You can learn more at ShiftIntelligence Co Tools. So I want to tell you that I'm going to tell you one more time at the end of the show, but right now, if you go there, you can grab some of the resources, tools and the really specific how to's and how they diagnose and their content. Like I said, it is very deep and very rich and we go much deeper in the masterclass video. So.

Let'S continue on because another thing that you've done is worked with.

Partners. In this case, the McLean's have a. A business where it's father, son, father wants to shut everything down. He completely is disillusioned. They had tons of problems. Why don't you deconstruct the before, during, after and where you took them?

Yeah, well, we were actually recommended to them by someone we Know who knew our situation, that we came from the father son dynamic in the family business. And when he heard that they were kind of having a little bit of friction, a little bit of friction, he said, yeah, you gotta talk to these guys. They can help you. So we were initially brought in to help them understand each other because there was a huge generational gap. Even though they've been working together for so many years, there was still misunderstanding and different vision for the business. The father was already nearing retirement. He was at it for 40 years. He was kind of getting done. But there was a little bit of lack of trust for the son if he was, you know, if he had the chops to take over and, you know, re. I mean, I guess I can say reassured the company's, you know, success in future. And there was, you know, obviously a bit of friction between them. And we just brought in. We were brought in to help them with that. However, there were other things that were happening at the same time, which is another toxic employee in the wood, because there's. That seems to be a pattern a lot in businesses. Another toxic employee that, you know, we helped them deal with. And then there was also a seasonality in the business, which that's also not very good for culture because you have people coming and going during the winter months when you can't do some of the work that they were doing. So we helped them with that as well. So it felt like there was a door to enter to help the father and son iron out some of the differences. But then the whole different layer of opportunities came up to be addressed that we were, we were able to do for them.

And what, in terms of before, during, after, what were the results? Just to give folks an idea. And ultimately you also had. When you look at your toolkit, it seems like there's a primary deliverable. But what your clients have in common is typically they Double their revenue. They 3x their profits. And.

The freedom, when we did the math, it's like 4x. So you got people who are going from 80 hours down to 20. That's the Beverly story, what I noticed. But it's very commonly divided by 4x to 5x. It's pretty substantial. So talk a little bit about the core deliverable here.

Yeah, so for Beverly, Beverly actually went. Her business went from 2 million in revenue to 5 million in revenue. So actually more than double. And besides the revenue, she's living a completely new life because she's no longer on the hook for the projects, she's no longer doing deliverables. She's building a team and guiding a team and building a culture. It's such a great feeling to know that you have a team you can trust, people that got your back, the people who are feeling.

Expansion and growing of their own career and profession, being in your environment that you are, you have a petri dish of people really growing and, and growing in their professional lives and being better mothers and fathers and feeling really proud of what you've built. And it's not only throwing a bunch of money and cash in your direction, but it's actually a great addition to society. And the work they do in the. In the community is amazing. So it's a. It's a full, full experience of contribution for her without the drag of doing 80 hours a week. And so that's the end result for Beverly and on the McLean side also, more than double, because when we came in, they were at 1.7 million in revenue. Right now, they're at 4 million in revenue. Their profits were 200,000, and now they are above 800,000. So it's more than we promise in general. And one really cool thing about them as well is every winter, because their work is based outside, on the east coast where it's cold, they would lose half their people every winter. Half the people would go away. And so hiring and training and is a big pain, having to do that every spring. And in 2023 was the first year, 100% retention. They didn't lose a single person, and they were able to more than double their revenue with the same number of employees. They employed a bunch of outsourced strategies, and they don't have to have the drama and the trouble of a really huge team in order to be able to grow. So that's kind of the end result on the McLean side.

Yeah, that's great. One thing that we noticed together when we're analyzing all your clients is one pattern is I asked you how many of your clients are immigrants like you were and what it looked like. About half, which was interesting because I, you know, I. I believe that our best clients are often. They resemble us, so they're attracted to our backgrounds. You know, the. The farm kid, the engineer, the immigrant story. But the other thing that more than half of your clients suffer from are partner issues. And you are brought in as the fixer often to renegotiate either help a partner realize it's time to leave, renegotiate a deal. But I believe when we really got deep, and this is the spiritual side of your work, you guys did an enormous amount of trauma healing. And I'd like to just spend a little time on the deep trauma work you did on yourselves and that you've been able to bring into this business as part of your process, that, you know, clients always want to buy the money and more profit and freedom, but what they really need is healing. So talk about your own healing journey and how that became part of the shift intelligence system and toolkit also.

Well, we realized that besides being around war from a very young age, we had a little bit of war inside as a. As a leftover kind of consequence of being around it so much. And so, you know, the war inside, the inner conflict, the wanting two different opposing things, the trouble that comes with, you know, certain attitudes and beliefs and things that get stuck from the. From the traumatic and painful experiences that had to be addressed. Because if without addressing that, we would just be an amplifier of that, of those inner voices all around us. And usually the chaos in our lives and our businesses are just an echo of what the war inside is going on. And so once we realized that, we said, you know what, we're not going to be able to untangle these efficiency and system issues in the business. And the people trouble, the persistent people issues, they're usually a reflection of your inner world. And we have to go very deep on our inner world to heal from a lot of trauma that we carry from our culture, from our heritage, from our country, from our homes, from the. From the bombs that we were dodging and all those things. And we had to do all that work. So it took very conscious effort. We got ourselves surrounded with the best of the best of this kind of approach and the systemic healing. We learned a lot, we healed a lot, and we then started facilitating and actually doing the healing work for others. We went on a large tour, we facilitated a lot of events in the LA area. We then went back to the Balkans and did some of that work.

In the region. And that was our journey. And then from there, we actually took the principles of that work, the deep healing work. We took those principles and we reapplied them in our organization. So as we were healing, our organization was healing. As we were healing inside, our culture was healing. As we were healing, our people were healing. And together we found a way to build them, build us and build our futures. And now we are doing the same with our clients.

I love that. So, Mariana, I'm going to read something here just as a setup for. You've got multiple case studies, and this is one, and I believe it came From Ray, who's Filipino. He said, my business partner. I were no longer on the same page and the business was suffering for years. I'm a fiercely loyal person and changing the nature of our deal felt like a betrayal. In one conversation, Mariana and Ivan helped me shift my perspective. I confidently met with my partner and collaboratively and amicably dissolved our partnership. It was remarkably empowering and freeing, and it feels like a whole new business life and opportunity. So I'd like you to just talk a little bit about again. We got wizard and the fixer. You know, you got the visionary, you got the hatchet man here, Hatchet lady. But, but really.

This really fascinating mixture of yin and yang. Yin and yang. You exchange heart, you exchange. Both of you have very, very scientific, process driven minds. And yet you are front end heart people, which I believe in, knowing you, that you're both sensitive, but you didn't come from sensitive cultures. Right. So talk a little bit about the transformation in the partner disillusion or renegotiation work that you often do.

Right. Well, as you probably are aware, most of the times when we want to go into a business and we're looking for a partner, it's usually from our inner circle, you know, is that it's a friend, it's a cousin, it's somebody that we know, it's somebody that we trust. And, you know, sometimes it worked out perfectly, but sometimes it doesn't because there's so much baggage in the personal world and some unaddressed things from the past that, you know, bubble up to the surface when things go sideways. So in this particular case, you know, the family, their families were friends, you know, you know, to begin with, and the two of them are really good friends and they, they had this, you know, purpose driven, you know, personalities, both of them, that they wanted to do a really good thing in the world and let's partner up together, which they did. But one of them was more in the business, which was Ray. He was more in the business and he was more in the operations and in day to day, while the other one was more an investor type of side. He had a, you know, a job and you know, both of them, in the beginning it was great and working. However, it's just, it felt like that one was doing it at expense of the other. And which was interesting is that both were feeling that way. And Ray understood that he, if he wants this business to continue, it cannot be a partnership anymore. He was also attached to the business. He wanted to see it succeed. But at the same Time. He didn't want to lose a friend, he didn't want to disappoint, he didn't want to.

Violate the value which was near and dear to his heart at the expense of the business falling apart. So he came to us in that way and he said, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I don't feel well. Every time I see him, I want to say something and it's just not, you know, I just, I can't. And then we, in one conversation, because we understand the complexity of everything and we take everything into account. We take the family, the hidden dynamics, the, you know, visible dynamics. We took all of that into account and we opened up his possibility lens, if you will, and we told him how to approach and the best possible way to preserve the friendship and to resolve amicably and also possibility that maybe his friend is feeling the same way that he is feeling too. And, you know, he went to his house, to his friend's house for a barbecue, they had a conversation and in about an hour everything was, you know, amicably resolved. And, you know, the business continued with Ray at his helm and his friend continued cheering him on.

That's awesome. That's well done. Well done. I love that. So as I think about this right now, I spend a lot of time with you thinking about, like, how can we deliver a massive 11 on value? And we put together the masterclass. We've got your Shift Intelligence, the inner work, which is a three part process that's in the master class. We also have the Shift intelligence Freedom toolkit which is what you use to identify the challenge, solve the problem. So I'm sharing this with you right now. It's ShiftIntelligence CO Tools. You can get that right now to go deeper in this. But let's talk a little bit about.

The Shift intelligence system, what you deliver, but also who are right fit clients and customers for you. Who do you work with? Who are best fits? Who get the most out of working with you? And I'm, you know, should we start with the pillars and the outcomes and then get to the.

The right fit or should we start with the right fit and then go through the pillars?

Well, I feel the right fit we can, we can cover that. Usually the best people that we work with is people that have, they really care about their business, they really care about their mission, they really want to deliver value, they want to contribute. Those are our people, people that are in the position to write a check, someone who is in charge or owns the business or has the autonomy to make decisions. It's very, very important. And usually. Where's the business? Usually between 2 million and 150 million in revenue, somewhere in that range. Someone who's ready, willing, and able to invest in their future, someone that's used to investing in their future, someone that wants to. Wants to address the core things that would take the business to the next level and make an even bigger contribution. Someone who's open and willing to do some introspection. Someone who is flexible and willing to try out new things and experiment around the business and around themselves. And that's who we usually work with. This is not for people who are.

Really, really uptight and inflexible and not willing to change. This is a major transformation that we are offering. It's going to feel uncomfortable at times because we literally. Expanding your capacity.

For greatness. We're expanding your capacity for possibility, for goodness, for greatness, for larger contribution, the bigger game that is available to you. And if you're not willing to open to that, it's probably not a fit.

And Mariana, talk a little bit about the pillars that you focus on. Again, you've got a very rich diagnostic process when you on board and when someone applies to work with you. But talk a little bit about some of the core pillars and what you're looking for, what makes the biggest difference in the shortest period of time. Because at the end of the day, your core promises are more revenue, more profit, and then, of course, the freedom, which is what drives all of us founders. I told you that we were talking the other day about how I won't trade money for freedom ever. And I. And I'll endure a lot of pain as long as I have freedom and pleasure and no, freedom is prison.

Right.

And I think we share that as founders and entrepreneurs. Those are very common, shared, common values. But what is it that you build this on top of?

Well, we, first of all, you know, we start. We alignment. You know, we started with alignment within the partners and employees and the culture. And everything that we see is available right then and there on the surface level, something that we can immediately triage and see results from. And then we also focus on financial clarity. How is the business doing? Yes, it's stable, but is it making money to its capacity or we have more ways to produce more financials and more money. So financial clarity on that. And sometimes that includes financial literacy for some owners because, you know, they are one of those that are just simply relying on like the most basic tools or on their accountant or, you know, the somebody who is like manage or bookkeeper or actually, you know, them knowing specifically where the money is going and where it's coming from and what the potential is. It's, you know, it's priceless. So that's another one. And then we then focus on business systems as well. What is it that your business already has? What's producing results? What is working? Where can we improve it? And then what are the other systems that we can implement which, you know, we did a lot of in our, in our company to help and enable the team to work better and more efficient and also kind of help the owners start kind of to back away a little bit and not be involved in day to day operations. And then, you know, we talk about the exit strategy. You know, what is there an exit that you desire? How does that look like? Do you want to sell it? Do you want to just have it be a humming machine that is producing your quality of life, enabling your quality of life? And this is the one that a lot of people are very not sure of or very sure of in the beginning. Yeah, I don't know, we'll see how it goes. Or oh, I want to sell, I want to just make it, or I would like it to be. But once we're there, that's when the real question comes up. You know, what do you actually want to do? And then, you know, ultimately, you know, the last pillar or the product of all of this is the founder's freedom. They get to decide what they want to do with their lives professionally, personally, you know, their families and all of.

That on their own terms, on their own terms, without anyone else dictating what happens over the next two or three years. One of the biggest nightmares is having to become an employee in your own business and take orders from someone in a business that you built from scratch over several decades. That's a painful thing we wanted to avoid and we were really successful in doing so. Rather than have them dictate the transition, you do your own transition and then decide what you want to do. Keep or sell and maybe sell later, whatever you want. But you'll have an asset that's, that is producing at a great clip and you have options and choices whenever you want. And that's the founder freedom, where you have an asset that doesn't have you on the hook and it's producing financial results and actually growing.

Yeah, well, what I've noticed in your huge body of work is working with you is time compression. So what took you, if you think about it, well over A decade of figuring out how to run your own business and then working with dozens of other founders, being able to help them along. That gives you massive power, massive time compression. You've got all these systems so someone can walk in and you can effectively bring these systems in and save them millions of dollars and years of time in months. But the insight you can provide in a weekend, in two days. Because part of what I love about what you do, that we share in common is the one on one workshop approaches. Sit down, get it done, figure it out, and then move forward where you're effectively installing these systems on multiple levels. This is, this is not a cookie cutter business and no one is a cookie cutter human. And what you do is hard work. And you've chosen instead of focusing on massive volumes of coaching and advice, doling out, you get your hands dirty in an organization. And I love that. I think it's brilliant. And again, I think it's something we share in common from our own values. So.

Is there anything you want to say about any of, any of the things I just mentioned with regards to the tools, the systems and the time compression you provide?

Well, it's, you know, you can go from, you can get some of this done with a lot of pain over several decades or you can do it in two or three years. We say that the window really for doing this kind of work is two to three, four years. And you can get your business to be independent of you. And that's, that's a huge statement. Sometimes hard to believe. After struggling for many, many years, I know that it was hard for me to believe. And when I was in the thick of it, I thought it was impossible. I was so worn out and so burned out and so, so, so much in so much pain, I couldn't even believe that it was possible. It was so dark. And I'm telling you, if I could have done it in that really demanding and difficult aerospace environment, you can definitely do it. It's possible for you. You can do this. Even though it might look really hard, there will be hard moments, but you can totally do it. You can make this happen. It's possible and you can do it. That's the message that I want to get across then. No matter what the situation is, there is a special custom process or pathway for you, a pathway through to your dreams, to why you started your business in the first place, to create the freedom and the quality of life for your family. And that dream is still alive. I want to tell you, no matter where you are finding yourself in right now.

Okay. And Mariana, I'm going to give you the last word before we tell everyone all the bonuses that we put together for him. So you get the last word. Is there anything that I should have asked you or anything you want to say after listening to that from Ivan?

Well, that's why he's a visionary. He owns the vision and the rest of us go and we execute on that vision. Yes, I would say speaking from the partner perspective, as a spouse in the business, whether you're working with your spouse or, or not in the business, I am a huge advocate for sharing and communicating and seeking help with, you know, from your partner and working together, you know, again, whether you are in the business or not, because that's where your, one of your strengths lies in your partner, you know, for better and for worse. And a lot of times, you know, entrepreneurs, they don't want to bother their partner. They, you know, they're afraid of the certain uncertainty inducing conversations and things like that. It is way better to, you know, get on the journey, on the same journey with your partner, with your spouse than, you know, trying to figure it out alone. Because it becomes more difficult doing it alone, but doing it together way better in makes it more possible.

Love that.

I love that.

I again, that's another area where we resonate deeply and that could be another rabbit hole, another show on its own, which is working with a spouse and a partner and how to make that happen. Yeah. So I'm going to bring this home and let you know once again if you head over to Shift Intelligence CO Tools, we put together a whole bunch of bonus goodies for you. So the Shift Intelligence Masterclass, the founder, Freedom Insights, that is a book. It's just filled with really, really cool wisdom from these two. They're really insightful. You'll love that. There's the Freedom toolkit, which is the tools they use that they apply. It's the 10 primary ones, the SHIFT Intelligence roadmap and an opportunity to apply for a strategy session to work with Mariana and Ivan. Now I'll tell you right now, they're very selective about who they work with. But because you're listening to this podcast, they're actually willing to do it as long as you are qualified. And they're going to review it. It's application only, but normally this is a five to ten thousand dollar offer. They're going to do it for, for listeners and viewers of this podcast. So that's another great reason to go over there. If this, any of this resonated with you and you go deeper. Take advantage of that. The other thing I'll add is they are awesome speakers, presenters and they can go for whether you need 20 minutes, two hours, two days or even two weeks. Like I said, they've got a massive body of work. So beside the work that they do one on one with businesses, they also work with groups and they speak and they're a great power couple together. They play off each other very, very well and what you see is what you get. They're an absolute delight to spend time with. So with that I'm going to say thank you so much both of you. You've been an absolute joy today and for you listening watching shiftintelligence co tools get your goodies. Let's say goodbye to everyone, shall we?

Yes.

All right, well, thank you so much for listening watching. This is Capability Amplifier. We will see you very soon. Bye bye.